Remember Solyndra? Congress Wants The President’s Blackberry
October 28, 2011
Congress Wants A Peek At The President's Messages
If you only have time to read one article today, READ this one.
According to Politico.com, a House Subcommittee is ready to issue subpoenas demanding all internal White House documents about the failed solar power company, including President Obama’s Blackberry messages. Memories of Watergate?
Solyndra has many similarities to the Watergate scandal of the 70’s. As with the early tidbits of evidence which leaked to the media when the Watergate break-in occurred, breadcrumbs from the Solyndra scandal lead directly to The White House. New challenges to Executive Privilege are emerging as Congress requests that the President open his Blackberry to scrutiny. Another familiarity? The sudden silence and failed memories of White House staffers. The Solyndra solar power team reads
like a White House staff meeting: White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, former National Economic Council Director Larry Summers and Ron Klain, the former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. Add to this list of senior aides the President himself and Vice President Joe Biden who both made special trips to Solyndra’s California plants to support the company.
Here’s how Congress plans to address the green energy boondoggle which served an Obama donor richly, and the American people not at all:
Follow @TKC_USReps. Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns said in a joint statement Friday that they were taking the extraordinary step of serving subpoenas on The White House because administration lawyers have repeatedly rejected their requests but have not formally invoked executive privilege.
“Subpoenaing the White House is a serious step that, unfortunately, appears necessary in light of the Obama administration’s stonewall on Solyndra,” the Republican lawmakers said.
President Can't Distance Himself From Solyndra
“Moreover, we fail to see why internal White House communications about a loan guarantee to a solar panel manufacturer would implicate issues of national security or the other foundations upon which the Supreme Court has recognized the privilege,” they added.
White House Counselor Kathryn Ruemmler earlier this month rejected the GOP lawmakers’ request by explaining that other agencies, including the Energy and Treasury departments and Office of Management and Budget, were being sufficiently responsive.
But the Republicans, already loaded up with more than 70,000 pages of materials, haven’t backed down. In their statement, Upton and Stearns said the documents they’ve gotten so far “only reveal the involvement of White House staff when directly contacting outside agencies.”
“To determine the extent of the West Wing’s involvement as critical decisions were being made about whether to proceed with the loan, it is essential to consider White House staff’s communications with one another,” they said. “The purpose of a possible subpoena for White House documents would be to secure access to these internal communications among White House staff discussing their knowledge of the Solyndra loan and any efforts they made to secure the guarantee.”
Specific White House officials listed in their request include former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, former National Economic Council Director Larry Summers and Ron Klain, the former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden.
Stearns has also said he thinks Obama’s BlackBerry messages should be handed over if they include discussions about Solyndra, though he’s acknowledged that request may be hard to comply with. Obama is the first president to use a BlackBerry.
The idea of issuing a subpoena was likely among several topics up for debate Thursday when nearly all of the leaders of the Energy and Commerce Committee met for about 30 minutes in a room just off the House floor. Also in the room were E&C Staff Director Gary Andres, lead Solyndra investigator Todd Harrison and Michael Catanzaro, the top energy and environmental aide to Speaker John Boehner.
When asked whether subpoenas were discussed, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), a vice chair on the oversight subcommittee, replied, “We want the information we’ve asked for. We hope people will be helpful.”
On a party-line vote, Stearns’s panel issued a subpoena earlier this summer to get OMB documents on Solyndra.
House Democrats said at the time that they didn’t support the document demand because they thought the administration was doing an adequate job relaying the relevant information. But the Democrats will face a difficult choice next week now that Solyndra has filed for bankruptcy and the company’s executive offices were raided by the FBI.
Spokesmen for Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A White House spokesman also did not reply immediately for comment.
Darren Goode contributed to this report.
This information being sought should be allowed to be open and ‘invisible’ to the public, only if it is not a matter of National Security. After all, these are elected/ appointed officials of whom are paid by the people and are supposedly, as we all know, serving the people of this country irregardless of who they are directly serving in their capacities in Washington. These individuals, of course, are not above the law and it would be beneficial to all concerned, for them to cooperate with the inquiring ‘Departments’ of the U.S. Government. If they do not, it is obviously suspect and make things more difficult. Like these evasive manuevers of redirecting such inquiries
If no wrong has been committed…Then it would be inconsequential…Right?
Washington buracracy sure can be complicated if they allow it to be.
Apparently trasnparency is only required from Republicans and Conservatives.
here here.